Tough Little Boys
by Eishexe
Summary: song fic - Booth's POV. Snippets from a possible life he could have. Rated T because i'm paranoid. Reviews would be oh so very lovely!


_Disclaimer : don't own Bones or other characters from show._

_Song: Tough Little Boys by Gary Allen – don't own that either obviously._

_Please review I'm still testing the waters with Bones fics._

_Well I never once, backed down from a punch.__  
__Well I'd take it square on the chin.__  
__but I found out fast that bully's just laugh,__  
__When you've got to stand up to them._

_So I didn't cry when I got a black eye,__  
__As bad as it hurt I just grinned…_

I had never been one to take anything from anybody. And I sure didn't take some jerk bully picking on my little brother. He had mouthed off to them when they had pushed him off the swings at school. They hadn't taken that lightly, and knocked him flat on his ass again to teach him who was boss. I just stood there, putting myself between him and the other boys. I pushed them back, daring them wordless to try again and that had infuriated them even more. I never even flinched when the bigger kid swung a punch. I took it and responded with my own right hook, sending the kid reeling. I smiled I helped my brother up. I had to be brave, even though the black eye that was quickly presenting itself hurt like hell. Pops was so proud of me, and told me a hundred times that night after school; and I felt satisfied those boys had would never bother him again and they hadn't.

_But when tough little boys grow up to be dads__  
__They turn into be babies again._

It was past midnight when the sound of a little voice woke me from my dreams. I yawned sitting up and glancing ahead of me. She was still sound asleep, probably do to the pain killers. I rubbed the sleep and boyhood memories from my eyes as I stood up shuffling across the cold hospital floor. The small bundle in the bassinette stirred and yawned; pushing against the blanket she was wrapped in. I leaned over and picked up the squirming baby gently and immediately she stopped fussing. I smiled stupidly and carried her back to my cot by the window. Even though she was less than a day old she already had that look, already had me wrapped around her finger. I smiled stupidly again knowing she had gotten that from her mother.  
_  
__Scared me to death, when you took your first steps,__  
__Well I'd fall every time you fell down._

It was Christmas eve, our second Christmas together. Parker was in Vermont for the holiday, much to my dismay, but it gave us time to bond just the three of us. I had been in the kitchen making some hot chocolate when Bones' sudden gasp had me bolting back into the living room. She raised her hand immediately not wanting me to startled RJ. I crept across the room to stand in front of the toddler. RJ was wobbling on her legs holding onto her mother's fingers, stamping her feet. I grinned knowing what was coming. I knelt down a foot away from her and held out my hands.

"Come on princess." I urged waving my hands towards myself. RJ seemed to roll the invitation around in her head for a moment as she stamped her feet again, testing their strength. Finally she put one foot forward and then another. Bones tried to follow behind her but RJ let go, reaching out to take my hands only to fall into me. I fell over in mocked shock, giving her the delusion she'd tackled me. She let out a squeal and then laughter rang out through the whole apartment.

I sat back up setting her back on her feet to see if she would try again; but she turned back taking her little finger and poking me in the chest.

"Dad-da." She smiled, and my heart melted as I glanced up at Bones. She smiled tenderly coming to sit with us.

"That's right RJ." Bones agreed, poking me in the chest too. "Daddy."

_Your first day of school, I cried like a fool, and__  
__I followed your school bus to town._

"Daddy I gotta go." She whined, as I fumbled my way through packing her lunch. "I'm gonna be late!"

"Ok ok princess." I replied handing over the disheveled lunch box, as I grabbed my keys off the counter, Bones just shaking her head. We headed out the door, down the elevator and into the parking deck. "I still don't see why we can't both take her."

"Because Booth, you have to be at work in twenty minutes!" Bones countered, giving me a quick peck on the cheek, before unlocking her car, and reminding our daughter. "Hugs and kisses RJ!"

RJ put a choke hold on my knees and I picked her up for a proper hug and kiss.

"Be good." I told her. "And remember not everyone is as smart as you so no showing off."

"I know Daddy. I won't." she replied giving me another quick hug before I set her in her carseat and buckled her in.

"Be safe call me when you get there." I said closing the door. I watched my family wave before pulling off into the street. I don't know why I was so worried. RJ would literally be inside the grounds of the Jeffersonian if something happened Bones would be right there in an instant. I turned climbing into my SUV and starting it up. I sat there another few seconds before I decided being a few minutes late to work wouldn't kill me. I pulled out of the garage and headed for the museum.

I caught up with my wife's car not long after and watched as she parked near the elementary building. The two climbed out and walked off to the door. I sighed, RJ had grown up so fast, it almost wasn't fair. Suddenly my daughter turned as if called and looked right at me. I grinned sheepishly and waved, I'd been caught. She shook her head at me and waved back throwing a kiss with it. _Yep..i'm a sap._ I thought catching the invisible kiss and blinking away the tears I didn't want to admit were there.

_Well I'm a grown man but as strong as I am,__  
__sometimes its hard to believe,__  
__How one little girl with little blonde curls,__  
__Can totally terrify me._

It was late summer, and we were spending the last two weeks before school started at the Caribbean with Hodgens, a very pregnant Angela and their son Jackson. It had been a lazy last few days. Hodgins and I were working on the evening camp fire when we'd heard Angela and Bones yelling at the kids. A second later they're voices escalated into screams. I don't think Hodgens and I had ever moved quite so fast in our lives. We skidded to a stop on the dock, Angela pacing. I looked up and my stomach sank.

Jackson was in the process of trying to swim his way towards Bones, my daughter holding onto his shoulders. I could see the blood trail even from where we were. In a blink Hodgins and I were in the water swimming as fast as we could towards them. We reached them, just as Bones had been able to get to them. Hodgins grabbing his exsausghted son up onto his shoulders, an 'that's my boy' escaping his lips.

"RJ are you ok?" Bones questioned holding her against her chest.

"NO I'm not ok!" RJ yelped. "GET ME OUT OF THE WATER. THIS CUT IS STINGING LIKE CRAZY!"

"Well if you had listened to me and not decided to check out the coral reef without shoes!" Jackson shot back tiredly.

"But it was perfectly ok for you to do to go pick up a jelly fish without gloves." RJ replied anger in every inch of her face, only to yelp in pain as Bones lost her footing and they fell forward alittle. "OW MOM!"

"Sorry!" Bones whinced. I wordless took our 7 year old and sat her on my shoulders, her injured foot successfully out of the water now.

"Well which one of us got her hurt huh?" Jackson continued jumping off his father's back as they reached shallow water. "You never listen to me!"

"I'm not supposed to you're a boy!" RJ snapped back ending the conversation. I smiled to myself. She could take me from heart attack to laughter in mere moments.

___If you were to ask my wife would just laugh,__  
__She'd say, "I know all about men,__  
__And how tough little boys grow up to be Dads__  
__They turn into be babies again._

I sat having a staring contest with a very dead and very gooey frog resting on the dining room table in front of me. What teacher could possibly think _this_ was a good idea for home work? RJ sat next to me making notes about the frog's appearance and how long she'd left it out to, as she put, aerate. My stomach turned as the left over lasagna that we had had for diner started to churn. Why oh why could Bones not be here to rescue me from this?

"Ok it says I have to…dad? Are you ok?" she asked trying to break my line of sight from the frog. My face must have been a lot paler than I had thought because she shook me. "Dad seriously I haven't even cut into it yet."

"I don't like dead things." I reminded her.

"…oh my god Dad come on! You and Mom used to work with dead _people_ all the time." She replied.

"No, no your MOTHER worked with the dead people. I technically stood within hearing distance and wrote down what she told me…well there was that one time with the guy that blew up in the jeep …b-b-but that doesn't count." I corrected.

"Oh for the…fine I call Uncle Jack." RJ muttered stomping off to get her cell phone leaving me with a very dead and very unpleasant frog that was still staring at me.

_Well I know one day I'll give you away,__  
__And I'm gonna stand there and smile.__  
__But when I get home and I'm all alone,__  
__Well I'll sit in your room for a while._

"JACKIE NO!" RJ screeched from the back yard. The teenagers ran passed the porch a moment later Jackson chasing RJ with the hose. I smiled shaking my head and turning the page in my paper. It got quiet again and then suddenly there was a loud splash and Jackson's much to Hodgen's-ie laugh. I looked up again to see he had pushed her into the pool and she was marching her way to the stairs for pay back. I rolled my eyes again as Angela sat down next to me at the deck table.

"I see they are at it again." She commented. I shrugged putting down the paper and watching them fight for control of the diving board.

"Bren and Jack are finishing up lunch should be done soon." She replied to my unspoken question I nodded.

"Ya know those two act just like you and Bren did when you met. Bickering, granted their arguments tend to be more…educated than yours and Bren's were no offense of course."

I chuckled shrugging again. I knew what she meant. RJ was growing up, and for what it was worth a small part of me was coming to grips with that fact. Jackson was a good boy. He'd treat her right I knew but I still felt protective.

"Ok Brooding, just remember whose kid he is. No death threats and defiantly _no_ putting the fear of god in him, or I'll have to kick your ass." Angela stated giving me her I know you look. I smiled as charmingly as I could and she only laughed shaking her head.

"That only works on Bren, Studly." She informed me turning back to the kids. "Alright you two, draw up and sign a temporary peace treaty! It's Lunch!"

RJ and Jackon replied with cheerful OK's and ran past me RJ flinging water at me as she went, giving me the same look she had the night she was born, the same look that told me she had me wrapped around her finger with no effort at all; just like her mother.

_When tough little boys grow up to be dads__  
__They turn into be babies again.__  
_


End file.
